Statement by Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, in Washington, about AI-5 is disastrous, irresponsible and very bad for the Brazilian economy, as it alienates potential investors

In a completely irresponsible speech, Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes stated, according to Folha de S.Paulo, that it is not possible to be frightened by the idea of someone asking for AI-5 in the face of a possible radicalization of street protests in Brazil.

According to the Correio, he defended the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), son of President Jair Bolsonaro, who considered the implementation of a similar act in cases of protests against the current government. According to Guedes, the speech was "a reaction to what he called summons from the left."

Guedes' irresponsible declaration generates political instability in the country and acts against the economic reforms that Guedes himself intends to make. Jair Bolsonaro's own members are largely to blame for the country's ongoing political crisis, as they constantly give statements such as these that put the nation in a political crisis.

This and countless other statements by senior government officials are obviously bad for business and economic stability because no one invests in an unstable country, where the minister of economics talks about ending rights and abolishing democracy. Paulo Guedes, who calls himself a liberal, is actually much closer to Latin American dictators like Pinochet and Maduro.

The AI-5 was the Brazilian military regime's hardest blow to the rights of Brazilian citizens. Set up on December 13, 1968, during the rule of General Costa e Silva, it was the most complete expression of the dictatorship, as it allowed the military to arbitrarily punish any Brazilian citizen considered an enemy of the regime.

It institutionalized the annulment of mandates of opposition deputies, suspended political rights and promoted layoffs and forced retirements of anti-regime civil servants. The AI-5 allowed the closing of the National Congress and other legislative houses of the country indefinitely. Since the establishment of AI-5, repression of opponents and torture practices have resurfaced in Brazil. It was the beginning of the terrible Years of Lead.

#ai5nuncamais

Petrobras employees (PETR3; PETR4) are forbidden to strike by the Brazilian Superior Labor Court (TST)

The Brazilian Superior Labor Court (TST) upheld Petrobras' injunction preventing oil tankers from going on strike on Monday, 25. The schedule was to stop for four days, arguing that the company is breaching parts of the collective bargaining agreement, of clauses concerning safety at work and the environment and rights granted to contractors, according to the Single Federation of Oilers (FUP).

Meanwhile, Petrobras' largest refinery, Replan, in Paulínia (SP), recorded a 25% increase in oil refining last month, with 1,769,770 cubic meters (m³) processed in October representing the best. performance for the period since 2015.

Amazon deforestation reaches frightening levels and rises 29.5% in 2019; almost 10.000 square kilometers were cut down

According to experts, Jair Bolsonaro's anti-environmental speech, coupled with the dismantling of oversight bodies, prompted a clearing of the forest in 2019.

As published by the Climate Observatory, a coalition of dozens of environmental conservation organizations in Brazil, "this is a direct result of Bolsonaro's strategy of dismantling the Ministry of Environment, demobilizing enforcement, shelving plans. to combat deforestation of previous governments and to empower environmental criminals in his speech, and the president himself has proudly stated that he had sent his anti-environment minister, Ricardo Salles, 'to put the scythe into the IBAMA Renewable Natural Resources] '.Salles obeyed."

According to data from Prodes 2019 (Satellite Legal Amazon Deforestation Monitoring Project), released by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), the deforested area in the Amazon was 9,762 km² between August 2018 and July 2019, the highest since 2008. This figure represents a 29.5% increase over the same period last year (August 2017 to July 2018), when deforestation was 7,536 km².

This increase represents the highest rate since 2008 and also the biggest jump from year to year in the last 22 years. For scientists like Carlos Nobre, this deforestation should transform part of the Amazon territory into an impoverished savanna. Obviously, this is very serious, which should affect the climate in the region and reduce, due to the change in the country's rainfall cycle, the capacity of Brazilian agricultural production. Deforestation is horrible for the environment and also bad for business.

This week, during a talk at the Wilson Center Brazil Institute in Washington, Brazil's agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina, heard several questions about problems in the Amazon at meetings with officials and investors. Therefore, the risk of an increase in the boycott of Brazilian products is getting bigger.

Petrobras (PETR3; PETR4) announces price adjustment for gasoline

According to site G1, Petrobras announced a 2.8% increase in fuel value. The increase comes after importers point out that the rise in international gasoline prices implies a lag, as one industry association said.

The Brazilian state-owned company increased by 2.8% the price in refineries on 11.18.2019.

With the adjustment of about 5 cents, the average price of gasoline should be around R$ 1.84 per liter, higher since the end of May (R$ 1.95), according to data from Petrobras compiled by Reuters.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes says Brazil and China are negotiating the creation of a free trade area

Brazil and China have begun negotiations, according to Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, about the possibility of establishing a free trade area between the two countries.

The Brazilian minister said the negotiations are at an early stage. However, under the rules of Mercosur, a group of which Brazil is part, member countries of this bloc cannot individually enter into bilateral agreements involving tariff elimination.

For Guedes, these negotiations are to make Brazil "integrate into global chains".

Paradoxically, President Jair Bolsonaro, who was a harsh critic of China during the 2018 campaign, now seems very keen to get closer to the communist nation. After meeting in Brasilia with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro said the Asian giant "is part of Brazil's future."

This week, the governments of Brazil and China sign nine acts of cooperation. Both advocate a closer approach between the two nations in technology. Brazil will export agribusiness expertise to the Chinese, while China, according to the Brazilian Infrastructure minister Tarcisio de Freitas, may take part in auctions for two railroads in Brazil.

Without government, Bolivia experiences chaos and violence; Evo Morales seeks asylum in Mexico

President Evo Morales's resignation has left Bolivia plunged into a wave of violence that has led police in La Paz to declare unable to guarantee public safety and ask the military for help. At night Evo announced that he was leaving for Mexico, which offered him asylum. With the resignation of the president, the deputy and the leaders of the House and Senate, the presidency would be with Jeanine Áñez, second vice president of the Senate.

One day after resigning the presidency of Bolivia, Evo Morales asked Mexico for asylum, as leaders negotiated a constitutional solution to the impasse by calling elections. Congress must meet today and try to remedy the power vacuum. Clashes continue to take place in La Paz. 

According to the newspaper O Globo, Bolivia's far-right Christian fundamentalist opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho asks for help to Brazil's far-right Christian fundamentalist run a foreign ministry to ask for help to stop now-ousted leader Evo Morales.

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, conflicts are becoming increasingly violent. Bolivia's Mayor of Vinto Patricia Arce, affiliated with President Evo Morales's party, has been subjected to a series of violence that reflects the practices of totalitarian state torture and gender-based political violence in Latin America. She had her hair cut forcibly and was covered in a red dye and forced to walk barefoot for miles after a rally of opponents to Evo Morales. 

Busy weekend in Latin America, with Lula out of prison in Brazil and Evo Morales resigning from office in Bolivia; Brazilian financial market reacts badly, Bovespa falls and the dollar opens in fall in Brazil this Monday

The crisis in Bolivia, Lula's exit from prison and infrastructure projects are the main issues in Brazilian newspapers this Monday. The State of Sao Paulo states that Evo and three others in the power line resign in Bolivia; Globo publishes that Evo Morales resigns under protests and military pressure and Correio Braziliense reports that Evo Morales resigns and Bolivia is left without government; according to Folha de S.Paulo says that Lula will start a series of trips around the country starting in Pernambuco, in the Brazilian Northeast; and Valor Econômico reports that only 6% of cities meet basic sanitation goals.

Pressured by opponents, police, and military, Evo Morales left Bolivia's presidency after nearly 14 years in power. After he left power, there was a cascading departure from the authorities that formed the constitutional succession line. This has created an unknown about who will take over the government in the country.

Lula

According to the president of Cebrap (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning) and philosophy professor at Unicamp (State University of Campinas), Marcos Nobre states that with the release of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country's political scenario changes completely. For him, the PT, Lula's party, should present an opposition program to President Jair Bolsonaro.

Former President Lula has said he will oppose the government of Jair Bolsonaro. That means new pressure movements on the already weakened government. Lula represents a larger organization of the opposition to the government, which until now was disorganized. Since the government of Jair Bolsonaro has great difficulty defending its theses in the Brazilian Congress, the reinforcement and reorganization of the opposition could make even more difficult the economic change projects proposed by the current government.

Basic sanitation in Brazil

Meanwhile, in Brazil, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper, only 6% of Brazilian cities meet the basic sanitation goals of the new sanitation legal framework. Of the 5,570 Brazilian cities, only 343 already have a sanitation coverage rate above 90% for water supply and 60% for sewage collection and treatment.

Lula raises the tone of criticism of Jair Bolsonaro's government and asks Brazilian people to take to the streets as the people of Chile are doing

In his second speech after leaving prison, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said that current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro should “ govern for the Brazilian people and not for the militiamen of Rio de Janeiro”.

Speaking in the vicinity of the São Bernardo do Campo Metalworkers Union in the state of Sao Paulo, Lula said Bolsonaro had never worked in his life and that Bolsonaro should not interfere with investigations to find out who killed Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Mariele Franco.  Lula also said he began working in a metallurgical at the age of thirteen while Bolsonaro retired at the age of 33 in Brazilian military service.

According to the Professor of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in São Paulo, Oliver Stuenkel, "most analysts believe that Lula's release from prison will make it harder for a centrist candidate to win in 2022 because the ideological spectrum will be dominated by the Workers Party and Bolsonaro. But Lula, at least for now, cannot run for office".

Even free, Lula cannot run for presidential succession. Under the Clean Record Law, the former president needs to have a sentence annulled by the Supreme Court to be entitled to officially apply for the 2022 election.

Mega auction of oil fields in Brazil fails and ends with figures far below that what was expected by the government of Jair Bolsonaro; paradoxically, Brazilian state-owned Petrobras (PETR3; PETR4) dominated the auction by a government that claims to be liberal in the economy

The pre-salt auction that took place today in Brazil was the dream of neoliberals who are in charge of the country's economy. Despite every announcement made, the lion was a resounding failure. Atapu camp did not even receive an offer.

The Brazilian government announced that it expected to raise more than $ 100 billion reais. However, in the end, the government only managed to get only $ 69,9 billion, which was received with great frustration.

The poor performance of the auction was not well received by the Brazilian financial market. One of the main developments of the fiasco was the dollar soaring and hitting the R$ 4,08.

The failure of the auction was therefore very badly received by the Brazilian financial agents. After the lion, in addition to the rise of the dollar, future interest rates also rose. 

Petrobras, a Brazilian state-owned company, bought 100% of a block and 90% of the largest one on the auction in partnership with Chinese state-owned companies CNODC and CNOOC.

It is very paradoxical that the auction made by a neoliberal government was dominated by Chinese communist companies and a Brazilian state-owned company.

The auction denied analysts that were saying that the pre-salt would be sold for a very low price. That did not happen simply because no multinational (BP walks Total) wanted to participate in the auction. The auction also denied those who were saying that this auction would be a kind of resurgence of Brazil's economy. At the end of the story, most of the auctioned oil went to Petrobras and the rest went to China.

Completely disconnected from the Brazilian reality, Paulo Guedes, Brazil's economy minister, complains about the country's poor because they do not save money

About to submit an economic package, Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes gave an interview to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, which President Jair Bolsonaro said he would cancel the signatures made by government agencies and the same newspaper that the president accuses to be one of the hyenas that attack the government.

In Paulo Guedes's interview with Folha de S.Paulo, the minister's complete disconnection from the reality of most Brazilians is evident.

Guedes, speaking in his interview that "the rich capitalize on their resources. The poor consume everything," shows that he simply cannot understand the Brazilian reality. This complete disconnect coupled with the inability to interpret shows that the minister is simply saying that our savings problem lies in the fact that the poor do not spare. It is a mixture of lack of empathy and ignorance.

Only a completely unprepared economist does not realize how terrible it is to claim that Brazilian probes do not spare. In 2019, in Brazil, the poorest 50% live with 413 reais per month (about 100 dollars). How those people are going to save money?

In the current Brazilian reality, of high unemployment and increased informality, about 104 million Brazilians live with the equivalent of half a minimum wage, currently at 998.00 reais.

According to economist Monica de Bolle, "It is well established - and almost tautological - that the poor are more likely to consume than the rich." According to her, "the reason is not that they undertake little, but that the resources they have are often enough just to reach the end of the month. Often not even that."

Number of microentrepreneurs grows 13% in Brazil

According to data from research made by Boa Vista, the number of Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEI) in Brazil rose 13% over the previous three months. According to the report, the growth in the number of microentrepreneurs continues to happen due to the high unemployment rate in the country. Reflecting on the slow recovery of the economy, individual microentrepreneurship has become an outlet for those who have lost their jobs with a formal contract in the crisis.

The number of individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs) is already over 9 million, according to federal government data. This is the first time that the number of self-employed Brazilians has exceeded this mark.  According to the IBGE, at the end of the quarter ended in August, self-employment reached 24.3 million people, the highest level ever recorded in the country.

The survey points out that Brazilians are undertaking by necessity, which is very different from starting an innovative company. Due to the gigantic number of 9 million microentrepreneurs, most open businesses come out of necessity and do not have a long life. Most companies close in 3 years, according to Sebrae.

So the growth in the number of microentrepreneurs is actually increased underemployment, forced entrepreneurship, and job insecurity.